Moose Sex Project aims to promote animal husbandry

A Nova Scotia mainland moose checks out the surroundings. An additional 198 hectares of land is being added to protected holdings in the region connecting New Brunswick to Nova Scotia with the goal of making it easier for the mammals to migrate and find mates. (CONTRIBUTED)

AMHERST — The mighty moose.

Large, gangly, antlered, awkward-looking twig eater.

Amorous and sexy, not so much.

But the so-called Moose Sex Project and the land conservancy that makes it possible were at the forefront of a land protection announcement at the YMCA in Amherst on Thursday.

“In terms of capturing people’s imaginations and getting people excited about the project, that name has done the trick,” said Paula Noel, program manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The conservancy announced the addition of 198 hectares of land to its protected holdings on the Chignecto Isthmus, the land bridge that links Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The latest addition of five pieces of land brings the amount of protected property on the isthmus to more than 1,000 hectares.

“The moose are an important part of what we are doing here,” Noel said. “The fact that moose are endangered in Nova Scotia and the way things were going on the Chignecto with development, with forestry that was occurring, and with the clearing for agriculture, it is a very narrow area in this greater landscape where there is connected forest, where animals are able to cross into Nova Scotia.”

On hand for the announcement, MP Scott Armstrong said the investment in preserving our natural heritage “demonstrates the government’s commitment to contribute to Canada’s long-term prosperity by restoring our lands and waters.”

Armstrong joked about the lack of a live demonstration to go along with the Moose Sex Project and said the announcement was tied into the government’s immigration policy of “bringing moose into Nova Scotia.”

That animal migration policy is an important part of what the conservancy hopes to accomplish.

“The corridor is already there; it’s just a matter of securing it for conservation so that it can continue to exist in the future so that moose and other wildlife, like bobcat, bear and deer, are able to move between the two provinces, and, in particular, move from the larger landscape of New Brunswick and all of North America into Nova Scotia,” Noel said.

That connection is integral to the survival of much of Nova Scotia’s wildlife, she said.

“Without that connectivity, Nova Scotia would actually become an ecological island. Whenever something is cut off from the larger area, it’s always hard on the wildlife. You get contraction of populations and you can even get extinction of individual species.”

Noel said the protected land announcement, despite its emphasis on moose migration, is not a panacea for the state of endangered mainland moose in Nova Scotia, where numbers hover around the 1,000 mark.

“There is certainly a lot more happening with moose in Nova Scotia than just this concern about immigration from New Brunswick,” Noel said. “ A lot of what’s caused the decline are things like changing habitats, opening up of larger intact forests where there is a lot more interaction between deer and moose. And deer carry a parasite, that when they are in close proximity to the moose, the moose don’t fare very well.”

Noel said a recovery plan is available for the mainland moose in Nova Scotia and that her group has been talking with wildlife experts and biologists in an effort to measure the influx of moose into the province.

“We do know that the healthiest and largest populations of moose in mainland Nova Scotia are close to the New Brunswick border so we want to make sure that there is in the future that ability for animals to migrate back and forth. Certainly a lot more work needs to be done as they get beyond and farther into the province.”

The land that falls under Thursday’s announcement includes 140 hectares in New Brunswick and 58 hectares in Nova Scotia. A private donation of 19 hectares by Hollis Cole is part of the Nova Scotia parcel.

“My father bought this land a long time ago and when he passed away he left it to me,” Cole said of the three parcels of property he refers to as the bog. “We used to to use it a fair bit, not much anymore. Now, it’s going to the nature conservancy. They can protect it and see that it’s used properly rather than me try to do something with it.”

Cole, who lives near Pugwash and will turn 64 on Saturday, said he snowmobiled on the bog two winters ago and “did see some moose tracks, which we haven’t seen for a long, long time.”